Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman lost his post as police commissioner last week and was the target of an ethics complaint this month, but voters today opted to keep him over seven active challengers.

Saltzman easily won re-election to his fourth term, despite his opponents' best shots at painting him as part of the tired status quo. The commissioner said he was both "humbled and grateful."

"I think they like what I bring to the council, a person of integrity and honesty, and somebody who's passionate about children in foster care, victims of abuse" and women trapped in the sex trade, he said. "Those will be the hallmarks of my next term in office."

Asked what he plans to change, he said: "You'll see the same person you've seen in the past."

In Portland's other City Council race, incumbent Nick Fish easily beat three lesser-known challengers for his first full term.

Saltzman faced a slate of candidates unhappy with the council, the mayor, police oversight and government spending. Mary Volm, a former city spokeswoman, spent about $21,000 and came in second. Jesse Cornett, the only one of Saltzman's opponents to qualify for $150,000 from the city's campaign finance fund, was getting a single-digit percentage of votes.

"I pulled no punches, and I had a very blunt style and answered questions instead of scripted talking points," Cornett said. "Apparently, that's why all those people who are successful have scripted talking points."

Jeff Cogen, meanwhile, blew by two candidates for his first full term as Multnomah County chairman with 77 percent of the vote.

Cogen, Saltzman's former chief of staff, was elected to the County Board of Commissioners in 2006 and became chairman in March after Ted Wheeler left to become state treasurer.

Above the din of his election night party, Cogen said his optimistic campaign connected with voters, especially a program to grow food for the poor on surplus county land in Troutdale.

"Of all the things I've done, that's the one that resonated most with people," Cogen said.

Cogen's top priority is to build a 16-bed mental health crisis treatment center to house and stabilize people suffering a psychotic episode. Cogen hopes to open the facility within a year on Portland's inner east side.

In the race to claim Cogen's former seat on the board, in District 2, Karol Collymore and Loretta Smith will advance to a runoff. Collymore, a staff assistant to Cogen, collected 34 percent. Smith, a Multnomah County field director for Sen. Ron Wyden, got 18 percent.

Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton easily won election by promising to repair frayed relationships between the Sheriff's Office and the county board. Staton also said he hopes to use Wapato jail, empty since its 2004 completion, as a regional corrections training facility and for a work program for convicts. Staton collected more than 80 percent of the vote.

Staton was appointed to the job in November by former Sheriff Bob Skipper, who resigned after failing to achieve state law enforcement certification. Staton will complete Skipper's term through 2010, then serve a four-year term.